Japan, Culture, and Film Travels

https://bigthink.com/thinking/does-japanese-philosophy-exist/?fbclid=IwAR2wCd7jN9_T-j3zdcI9HXETYXPfdDyRYRYW6qgIdCHujYIgGEyr2Rs1jHU

This is an interesting article on Japanese philosophy

A few years back I did a new years resolution thing and travelled my way around the world through book and film. For each country I would watch a bunch of their films and read a mix of fiction and non-fiction (history, philosophy, culture, religion). There were some common througlines, especially relating to colonization, and I tried to emphasize in my studies and experiences the development of their local film industries. Common to each country was of course their relationship to the american film industry, given how it became a primary tool of modern colonization.

I found Japan to be a bit unique and hard to narrow down in that regard. This article touches on some of those quirks and particularities regarding Japanese philosophy, especially as it relates to cultural influence. In some sense, on the surface it appears that Japan just became western by way of political powers and influences. This of course becomes most obvious in the way that japanese culture and philosophy becomes westernized. And yet in some very real ways its identity remained shaped by its relationship to the East. You can see this in the development of its film industry. There are many aspects of its culture and philosophy that simply do not cater to the west and actually act as guards against western infiltration.

Much of this article gives voice to how that gives shape to a discussion about japanese philosophy and culture, wondering about whether its resistance to the trappings of western philosophy is not the absence of a japanese philosophy but the very basis for describing and defining its philosophy.

As I remember it said in one book, japanese filmmakers seemed perfectly okay with Americans retaining superficial and westernized readings of their philosophy, as they had learned how to use the infiltration of american film and culture to set themselves apart from the larger East.

In any case, brings back memories of those travels.